A Grim Future
by ducky76
Summary: 2 years in the future the battle with Xana has taken a turn for the worse. He's becoming more powerful, & the fight is on the verge of becoming a war. Odd decides to document the fight on film. OxA YxU
1. Odd's Documentary

Hey guys! Here's a story that might end up just being a one-shot. I have some ideas about how to make it a full story, but I just want to see how everyone likes this idea. I'm not really sure if I expect anyone to like this, because I picture it more as something on a television screen than as a fanfic. I'll still try it out, though. This first chapter is mostly a documentary Odd made about fighting Lyoko, but the rest of the chapters will not be in the same form. Please review!

Summary: Two years in the future, the battle against Xana has taken a turn for the worse. Xana is becoming more powerful, and the fight is on the verge of becoming a war involving people beyond the small gang at Kadic Academy. Odd decides to document the fight on Lyoko, because he's afraid that they might lose and will need someone else to keep fighting. OxA YxU

If I continue the story it will be about how the fight with Xana becomes a war and about how the gang gets Aelita back.

**Odd's documentary playing on television**

_**Odd voicing over in his documentary

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**_

Yumi and Ulrich, now sixteen and fifteen, sat down on Ulrich's bed while Odd turned on the television in the room, showing static on the screen. "So what is this thing?" Yumi asked the blonde curiously as she settled herself closer to her boyfriend.

"You'll see," Odd told her, unplugging his digital video camera from his computer. He picked up a cord from the desk and plugged it into both the television and the camera. He pressed 'play' and then sat down on his own bed, rubbing the stomach of his dog Kiwi. "Just watch."

**It was a sunny afternoon at Kadic. Students walked through the courtyard, talking and laughing like any normal day. As usual, Sissi Delmas was teasing the school's two self-proclaimed reporters Milly and Tamiya, with Nicholas and Herve watching with smug looks on their faces. A group of three, Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie, were further away, talking together. A pair of boys, Theo and Julian, was kicking a soccer ball back and forth. A tall boy named William was flirting with a girl named Emily from his grade. It appeared to be a typical school full of typical teenagers.**

**_Welcome to Kadic Academy. This place seems nice, huh? Well I like to call this place 'home.' I live in a dorm here._**

**Odd and Ulrich were sitting on their separate beds in their very messy dorm room. The skinny, unusually-dressed blonde boy was scratching a small dog's stomach while his roommate played with his cell phone, glancing every now and then self-consciously at the camera that he knew was set up on the windowsill. **

**_That's me playing with the dog, Kiwi. I'm Odd. No, really, that's my name, but I suppose I do seem a little unusual. The broody guy on the other bed is my roommate Ulrich. Believe it or not, he's not always really serious. He's got a pretty cool sense of humor, and we pull a lot of pranks together. He's my best friend. In fact, I consider him my brother._**

**Ulrich and Yumi then appeared sitting in the courtyard together one evening. They seemed nervous about something as they talked quietly, holding hands.**

**_That's Yumi. Ulrich has been in love with her since the fourth grade, which is saying something, because he didn't talk to her until he was in sixth grade. Yumi's a year older than us, making her sixteen, but this happened about two years ago, making her fourteen in this. Just so you know, you are now witnessing the first date._**

**Ulrich blushed immediately as Yumi closed her eyes and leaned into him, but after a moment he shook off his shock and kissed her.**

…_**And that was the first kiss. They'll probably kill me for that.**_

Ulrich's face turned the same deep shade of red as in the video.

Yumi gave Odd a suspicious look. "Odd, were you hiding in the bushes taping us?" she asked with a slight blush.

Odd gave his two friends a sheepish grin. "It was two years ago!" he explained. "I was still immature then. I wouldn't be immature enough to do that now!"

"Well it's not very mature to put it in your new movie!" Yumi said, though she was slightly amused that he even still had that on video after two years. It was actually kind of nice to be able to see that moment again, exactly the way she remembered it.

"Just watch," Odd sighed.

_**Yumi is another of my closest friends. She's the only one who lives off-campus. She's the one who usually keeps me out of trouble, I think mostly because she's so used to being a big sister that she treats me like a second little brother.**_

**The screen then showed Jeremie sitting in front of a computer in his own dorm room. The computer desk was a bit of a mess, littered with pages copied from books or printed off the computer for research. A framed picture sat amongst the papers on the desk, keeping Jeremie company as he worked. **

**_This brings me to the fourth member of our group, Jeremie. He's the same age as me and Ulrich, but he's about a million times smarter. He's our resident genius._**

**Jeremie looked at the camera in annoyance. "Odd do you really have to videotape me? I'm trying to do some research."**

**"Just pretend I'm not here Jer," Odd's voice said cheerfully.**

**Jeremie sighed and turned back to his computer screen, deciding to ignore his friend's presence. The screen lingered on him a moment longer before the scene changed completely to a park. **

**A 13-year-old girl with short pink hair was smiling at the camera happily. She had an ice cream cone in one hand while she swayed back and forth on a swing. "We should come to this park more often," she said excitedly. "I've never been on a swing before! This is so much fun!"**

Yumi sighed sadly and snuggled up closer to Ulrich. Glancing at Odd, she saw a sad smile on his face.

**"We'll have to find some place in Lyoko to set one up," Odd joked.**

**Aelita giggled as she shook her head. She licked her ice cream and swung her feet in front of her.**

_**That girl is Aelita, probably the most loveable, most beautiful, smartest, sweetest girl in the entire world. She was the fifth member of our little group, but she's been gone for two years.**_

**The screen switched over to thepicture on Jeremie's desk, the drawing Odd had made for Jeremie's birthday a few years before.**

**_We look like your normal, every-day kids, right? Well, if that were the case, this would be a very boring documentary. Fortunately for you… or unfortunately for us… whichever way you choose… I'm going to tell you all about our deep dark secret… Lyoko._**

**Another room appeared on the screen, but this one was empty except for three tall cylindrical capsules.**

**_Over three years ago, Jeremie stumbled across this place. These three tube things are scanners, but not the kind that copy pictures into computers. These scanners copy people into computers. I know it sounds crazy, but what Jeremie discovered is a virtual world called Lyoko. These three scanners are the way to get in and out of that virtual world._** **_When Jeremie told us all about Lyoko, we thought he'd gone nuts. We let him try to prove it to us though._**

**The scene once again changed, and the Supercomputer room appeared.**

**_He took us to this room. He turned on the computer, and that was the first time that I saw her… Aelita. She was Lyoko's guardian. She told us about how she shared her virtual world with a program called Xana that was a danger to Lyoko. The reason she had made contact with Jeremie was because Xana was now becoming a threat to our world. She wanted us to shut down the Supercomputer to destroy her and Xana. Jeremie couldn't do that, though, and I was glad when he refused. We made it our mission to protect Lyoko until Aelita was a part of our world._**

**Odd sat in a chair, now back in his bedroom. He had the camera set up directly in front of him. "Xana started attacking our world, most of his attacks directed at the four of us over here," he said. "We found it pretty easy to fight backm though. Ulrich, Yumi, and I got into the scanners while Jeremie monitored Lyoko from the Supercomputer. We helped Aelita get to the activated towers in Lyoko, and she entered the codes to deactivate them and send us back in time to reverse the damage done.**

**"It took a little over a year, but eventually, Jeremie materialized Aelita. Our troubles on Lyoko were far from over, though. Xana had given Aelita a virus and we couldn't kill him without killing her too. Research went on as we tried to find a cure. We discovered the name of Lyoko's creator, Franz Hopper, a man who had been a teacher at Kadic Academy before disappearing. We found out that Franz Hopper was actually Aelita's father, and that he was the third inhabitant of Lyoko. We realized that we had a new mission. We had to find Aelita's father. Sadly, Xana's virus took over Aelita before we found her antivirus. We would have given up hope of saving Aelita if we hadn't found Franz soon after that."**

**Franz Hopper was sitting at the Supercomputer, typing away, accessing restricted files that even Jeremie couldn't get to. **

_**He's the only person left that can deactivate the towers, and luckily he can do it from our world, which allows the rest of us to defend people over here easier. Since we found him, we've also learned a lot more about Lyoko, and hopefully we'll be able to use that information to stop Xana.**_

**"Hey Mr. Hopper," Odd said, making the old man look up inquiringly. "Will you tell a little bit about Lyoko's history?"**

**Franz looked unsure. "Do you really think it's appropriate to record this information Odd?"**

**"It's not like Lyoko's going to be a secret much longer if Xana gets any more powerful," Odd said seriously. "Besides, I'm not asking for any classified information, just the general stuff."**

**Franz was indecisive for a moment before responding. "I suppose that it's alright then…"**

**"Ok," Odd replied. "So Franz… How did Lyoko come about?"**

**"I created Lyoko as an experiment years ago," the scientist explained. "It was just something to keep me occupied after my wife's passing. It was never meant to be so real, but as I got wrapped up in it, I realized that I could create a virtual world that was much more than a mere video game."**

**"And someone found out about it right?"**

**Franz nodded. "I think that's what always happens to great discoveries. The government learned about it, and they decided to fund my research. I didn't know that they wanted me to turn it into a military weapon. When they ordered me to begin Project Xana I had to do it. I realized how detrimental this could be though, and I tried to escape. I ran away with my daughter, Aelita, and virtualized us both so that we could not be found. It wasn't supposed to last so long though… just a few days. That goddamn government, they'd interfered with my research. Xana had a mind of its own, and he trapped us there…"**

**Odd was once again sitting in the chair in his bedroom with a sad look on his face. "So Xana's got Aelita on his side now, and we are trying our hardest to save her. The fight is constantly getting worse, but we're going to keep on fighting no matter what."**

Odd pressed 'pause' and looked back at his friends. "It's nowhere near finished," he told them. "It's not like I'm making it for entertainment. I just feel like I need to document all of this, and I figured that I should show you guys before I kept making it, just so that you know that I'm doing it."

"Maybe one day, someone outside of our group will actually get to see it," Yumi said, sounding less skeptical then she would have in the past. Xana was much stronger now, and she didn't doubt that he would reveal himself to more people eventually.

Ulrich's phone vibrated and he pulled it out of his pocket, reading the text message he'd just received. "It's Jeremie. We have to go meet him and Franz at the Factory."

"Let's go then," Yumi said as she and Ulrich stood and walked to the door. "Odd?"

"Coming," Odd said as he set down the camera, accidentally pressing 'play.' He stood and followed his friends out of the room as the rest of the video played.

**Odd was still sitting in front of the camera, speaking to it. "This is a different kind of movie for me to make. I usually make stupid, cheesy films just for fun. I just decided to do something serious for once. I'm going to document everything about this fight with Xana from now on. I have a feeling this is all going to come to something big, that this fight with Xana's going to become more like a war. If we win, then I guess people will never have to know, never have to see this. But if we lose… Maybe someone will find this… And hopefully they'll be willing to take over for us. If that's the case, I hope that they can save Aelita and maybe someone can tell her one day just how much I love her."**

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So just tell me what you think. I know that this first chapter was kind of weird, but if I make this a longer story, the rest of the chapters will be written the way I normally write. Please review!


	2. A Turn for the Worse

Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews! I noticed some concerns with the whole Odd and Aelita thing. I know it seems a little weird, but I don't really think Odd's feelings for Aelita are going to be anything that will be known by anybody who thinks that they are cousins, so the whole fake cousin thing doesn't really matter.

And as far as Jeremie goes, he has no idea that Odd has feelings for Aelita, but once he does find out I promise that there will bea bitof Jeremie and Odd conflict. The main reason I chose the pairing was because Odd is my favorite character and there's just such a limited selection of girls for him. I don't like OCs for him and I really don't think that Sam was important enough in the show for me to want to pair him with her. I do like the OddxSissi pairing, but for this story it wouldn't work. As far as JxA is concerned, I accept the pairing because it is an obvious one on the show, but by personalities, I would pair Aelita with Odd before Jeremie. Jeremie is just no fun.

So it's taken me a while to update. The reason is mostly because I wanted to plan out all of the important details of the story carefully before continuing it. I actually have parts of different chapters typed up already.And now chapter two is finally done.Read and review!

**Odd filming his documentary

* * *

**

**Odd once again sat with his camera in front of him as he reviewed the day's events. "So, Jeremie and Franz called us up to head to the Factory earlier today. And for the first time in a while they actually needed us to go to Lyoko…"**

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi went towards the very familiar underground way to the Factory. After so many years of skateboarding in the sewers, they knew every single bump, nick, and crack in their path. It was a boring ride every time anymore for Odd. As they grabbed their boards, Odd glanced at the fourth skateboard leaning against the wall, untouched for two years.

Sighing, Odd set his skateboard on the ground and followed his friends through the sewers. He'd been thinking about Aelita a lot lately. Everything reminded him of her and of just how much he missed her. Back when he'd first started to make the trip to the Factory and Lyoko, he'd had no idea that this girl would be on his mind so constantly. Sometimes these days, Odd believed that he thought about her more than even Jeremie did.

Jeremie seemed less concerned with Aelita now and more obsessed with just beating Xana. It was like his grudge against the computer virus surpassed his feelings for the girl, and Odd wondered if Jeremie might even be holding a grudge against Aelita as well. Odd hated to hear Jeremie talk to Aelita as if she were the enemy, just like he had always hated how Jeremie had been fascinated with her mostly because he'd thought she was an AI. Had Jeremie lost interest in her since discovering that she was actually the daughter of Franz Hopper?

Odd at least realized that Aelita was much more than a computer program. He hated to consider her that way, as if she was just a thing. Jeremie had never seen her as human enough to care for her most human needs, like her need to enjoy herself. Odd could think back to many times when Jeremie had neglected her needs for entertainment, and it made him angry that Jeremie always considered the fight on Lyoko the most important thing about her. She was just a computer that needed to lose a virus in Jeremie's eyes.

It had always been up to Odd to make sure Aelita had a good time. He'd always been the one to take her to the park or go with her to the pool. He'd been the one who'd taught her how to eat a snow cone just slow enough so that she wouldn't get a brain freeze. He'd taught her how to find shapes in the clouds and constellations among the stars. He'd shown her how to make the perfect snowball to throw at Ulrich's face and he'd helped her make her first snow angel. _It's essential to living_, he'd told her wisely. And when she'd said that she thought only breathing, eating and drinking were essential, he'd argued with the statement. _That's what you need to have life, but you need to enjoy yourself to say you lived it._

Odd had wanted so badly to show her what it meant to really live, to experience happiness and freedom. He'd wanted to show her what she made living mean to him. And he swore to himself that he would save her one day and do just that.

Once the three of them arrived at the Factory, they stepped into the elevator and Ulrich pressed the button to make it go down. "So what is this about again?" Odd asked him.

"Jeremie said that there was an attack or something that Franz couldn't stop," the brunette explained.

"Great," Odd muttered. "And I bet we get to clean up the mess. I think I liked it a lot better when we had to actually go into Lyoko to do our part. Now with Franz around we don't ever get to go."

Yumi sighed and shook her head at Odd's complaint. "Would you rather us be without him?" Yumi asked. "If it weren't for Franz, we'd have given up by now. We would have had to shut down Lyoko entirely to stop Xana and Aelita."

"No," Odd replied sharply, feeling angry at the mere mention of that as an option. "I would never let that happen. And if any of you would, you're traitors. Aelita's our friend, and she hasn't done any of this of her own free will. We could never turn our backs on her like that."

"I'm not saying we're going to do that," Yumi said defensively.

"You just said we would have," Odd snapped. "Maybe you would do it… But I at least won't give-"

"Chill out Odd," Ulrich interrupted. "It's not going to happen. We would never do that to Aelita. We care about her too."

"Jeremie would do it," Odd muttered as he crossed his arms stubbornly and glared at the wall. "He doesn't give a shit about her…"

Yumi and Ulrich stared at him incredulously. "What are you talking about, Odd?" Yumi asked. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

There was no time to discuss it any further, though, as the doors of the elevator opened. Odd brusquely walked past his friends, bumping into Yumi's shoulder a bit rudely as he got out of the elevator. "Hey Jer," he said in his normal friendly voice. "Hey Franz. What's the deal?"

Franz Hopper was sitting in the chair in front of the Supercomputer with Jeremie standing by his side. They both turned around to acknowledge the arrival of the others. "We found something interesting in the footage of the attack yesterday."

"What was the attack anyway?" Ulrich asked. "Was it really big enough to make the news?"

Jeremie looked at Ulrich. "Yes, big enough to make the news," he replied. "However, the authorities have no idea just how big it is."

"No one died did they?" Yumi asked fearfully.

"Fortunately not," Franz told her. "It was a robbery."

"That's big?" Odd asked skeptically. "That's probably not even Xana."

"We're sure it was Xana for two very good reasons," Jeremie explained. "The first being the man who was robbed. Gauthier D'Arcy is a retired scientist who worked for the military, one of the ones who got involved in Project Xana. Xana must have stolen some secret files from D'Arcy's computer."

"There's no way the military would just let him keep top secret files like that in his own home," Yumi protested.

"That's what I thought," Franz said. "But D'Arcy is a very smart man, perhaps smarter than me. I don't doubt his ability to get such information without being discovered. Unfortunately, Xana suspected it before I did."

"What kind of files are we talking about here?" Ulrich asked worriedly. "How valuable would they be to Xana?"

"That's what we need you guys to find out," Jeremie said. "Any data that Xana acquires can be accessed through the Supercomputer, but we can't get to it from here."

"So we're making a trip to Sector Five then?" Yumi asked.

"What's the other reason?" Odd asked suddenly.

"Other reason?" Jeremie repeated confusedly.

"You said that you had two very good reasons to be sure of Xana's involvement in the robbery," Odd said. "What was the other one?"

"Oh yes," Franz said. "You three will find this very interesting. We were looking at the footage that the news was showing of the crime scene, and we found something- or someone, rather- that we were shocked to see."

"Two people in fact," Jeremie said while Franz brought up the file on the computer.

The footage began to play, showing a reporter talking about the robbery with a crowd of people behind her, trying to get a good look at the crime scene. "What's so interesting about this?" Ulrich asked when the footage was paused.

Yumi didn't see it either, but Odd did. He was staring at the screen in surprise, while the other two watched it vacantly. "Aelita," he whispered as he looked at the emotionless face of the pink-haired girl.

"Yes, it's Aelita," Jeremie said dismissively, causing Odd to grimace at him slightly, noticed only to by a very attentive Yumi. "But the person we are more interested in is the man standing beside her."

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich all looked more closely at the man wearing a long black trench coat. He was a rather tall man with straight, jet-black hair that hung over his shoulders down to his mid-torso. His skin was extremely pale, as if he had not seen the sun in years, and his eyes were pale blue. They had an wild look to them, as if humanity had gone from him long ago, leaving him uncultivated and untamed, or perhaps it was the look of one who had never known how to be human in the first place. Yumi gasped. "Is that…?"

Jeremie simply nodded as a very serious look set over his features. "Xana."

"How does he have a body?" Ulrich asked.

"He's never had his own unique form before," Yumi said.

"That's what baffles us," Franz said. "I think that whatever information he stole from D'Arcy helped him create his own form. I just don't know how. I'm hoping that this body is only a temporary one."

"Let's get that information then," Ulrich said decidedly.

"We'll head down to the scanner room," Yumi said as she and the other two boys began to make their way to the elevator.

"Hold on a second," Jeremie said, causing them all to turn back. "Only two of you will have to go to Sector Five."

"Is one of us staying here?" Odd asked.

"No," Franz said. "Only Aelita and I have the have the capability to transfer information from Carthage straight to the Supercomputer. We are going to need one of you to find a tower and access the system from there. One of the pair that goes to Sector Five will transfer the files to the tower, and from the tower we can transfer it to here."

"We'll guide you through the process," Jeremie said. "But it's imperative that everything is done correctly. If this doesn't go smoothly, Xana will stop us and we will be in a lot of trouble."

"Well, I'm hopeless with computers," Ulrich said. "You remember the disaster with my laptop a couple months ago. It took even you forever to fix it for me."

"Which is why we already decided that Yumi and Odd will be the ones to complete the transfers," Jeremie replied. "I know Yumi is pretty good with computers, and I'm hoping Odd can handle himself well enough."

"I'm better than Ulrich if that's what you mean," Odd said. "Anyone is better than Ulrich." Ulrich glared at Odd, who had a satisfied smirk on his face. "In fact, I would even venture to say I'm better with computers than Yumi is."

"Ok," Franz said. "Which one of you two will stay at the tower of the sector you are virtualized to? It should be the one with the most computer skills, because the tower is the link between Carthage and us."

"Well, I'll gladly do it," Odd volunteered. "Saves me a nauseating trip in that horrible giant ball."

"Ok, let's do this," Jeremie said with a nod.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Odd was standing inside a tower in the Forest Sector, waiting for Yumi and Ulrich to get past some monsters and access the files. "What's taking them so long?" he asked impatiently. "Have they at least gotten past the countdown yet?"

"Yea, but they ran into some Creepers," Jeremie's voice said. "They'll be done soon."

No sooner had he spoke than the screen of the tower's computer popped up showing Yumi's face. Odd saw Ulrich standing behind her, keeping a lookout for Flying Mantas. "You ready on your end for the transfer Odd?" Yumi asked.

Odd nodded. "Go ahead."

Odd watched the screen in boredom as the window showing Yumi disappeared and was replaced by a data transfer screen ten minutes later, Yumi having finally finished Jeremie's instructions. Odd had listened intently as well as Jeremie took her through every step. "Ok, Einstein," he said when he knew it was his turn. "Am I just pressing 'accept' on this window and then doing the same stuff as Yumi?"

"Yea," Jeremie's voice said. "Did you pay attention to what I told her before?"

"Eh, a little bit," Odd said nonchalantly as he pressed where the screen said the word 'accept.'

He could hear Jeremie's sigh of frustration. "You should be taking this much more seriously Odd. If you mess one thing up, you could seriously jeopardize our mission."

"Don't worry about it," Odd said as he began typing in more things, exactly as Jeremie had explained it to Yumi just before. "I've got everything under control."

There was a moment of silence from the blond on earth, before he spoke in astonishment at what was appearing on the Supercomputer's screen. "W-wow Odd," Jeremie said slowly. "You're flying through this. I didn't know you were so good with computers."

"Well I do work on my laptop all of the time," Odd said, thinking, 'especially now without Aelita around to entertain.' "I always work with those music and movie editing programs, and I do some of my graphic art on there. And don't forget all of the video games. So naturally, I picked up a few things. I'm no computer expert, but I'm a hell of a fast learner."

"I'm very impressed," Franz's voice said proudly.

"Why are you failing so many classes, Odd?" Jeremie's voice said, reprimanding him. Odd rolled his eyes, knowing that he was about to get a lecture. "You are far from stupid Odd. You could be doing much better if you would just try to learn."

Odd ignored him as he finished off the rest of his job, occasionally asking Jeremie about codes. "Done," he said a few minutes later. "The files should be getting to you any second now. Have Ulrich and Yumi made it out of Sector Five yet?"

"They're actually headed toward your tower as we speak. We'll get you three de-virtualized once they get there."

A couple minutes later, Yumi and Ulrich entered the tower and stood beside Odd. "Ok Jer," Yumi said. "We're ready."

However, nothing happened and the trio was still standing in the center of the tower. After waiting a couple moments, Ulrich became impatient. "Hello? Jeremie? Franz? We're ready to come back."

"What's going on over there?" Yumi asked curiously.

When they heard Jeremie's voice, they could hardly believe the way it wavered. "We… we just got the files…"

"Did I do something wrong?" Odd asked fearfully, wishing he hadn't been so confident in himself before. 'Damn it… I screw everything up.'

"No," Franz said. "You transferred it perfectly… The information is just a little… shocking…"

* * *

"**Franz was right," Odd said to the camera. "What we found was really shocking. It's going to end up changing this entire fight, and not for the better. Basically, what Xana stole from D'Arcy were files of information on how they linked Xana's power to the real world years back.**

**"I guess it doesn't really sound so bad, but Xana can do a lot with that information… and he has. Ulrich, Yumi, and I didn't really understand at first, but Franz and Einstein explained it to us. Xana got his new body by using the new information and he managed to even keep his powers. Jeremie told us that we can't use the Supercomputer to get rid of Xana anymore, and honestly… I'm relieved. We no longer have the option of doing that and killing Aelita, and I'm pretty sure Jeremie was nearing the point where he'd do it too.**

**"I guess I should probably mention the other thing Xana did with his new information. He gave Aelita her Lyoko powers in our world, so she can do just about anything now. It's pretty clear now that Xana's preparing her to be a weapon and not just a shield to keep us from shutting him down. I'm going to save her though. I refuse to let Xana use Aelita like that." **


End file.
